Texas Rangers Blog

Did Josh Hamilton jilt the Rangers? Not in the business of baseball

Josh Hamilton was under no contractual obligation to give the Rangers the “right of first refusal.” Because of reports that Hamilton would give the Rangers a chance to match any offer, you can bet teams that made him an offer were going to make it a take-it-or-leave-it situation.

They were not going to let him shop it back to the Rangers. The Angels were opportunistic. They saw a slow market developing and figured they had one chance to jump in. They were the only team to offer Hamilton an acceptable length of contract (five years) and the average salary he was seeking ($25 million per year). If he had taken that back to the Rangers, it’s very possible he’d have lost out on his one shot.

Also, the Rangers were under no such obligations. If they had been able to sign Greinke and complete the trade for Upton, it’s possible they would have moved on without ever giving Hamilton a chance to come back on the Rangers’ terms.